duderino

Thanks, 

I think we will stick with the Yacht Club.

  I am asking for your opinion which you would choose.

My wife and I are going without the kids in January,   Princess has a sale on their beverage package, so the price is about the same for a balcony room on Princess  as an interior room in the Yacht Club.   I am looking at the Seaside and the Sky Princess.   

We were on the Seaside right after it debuted, but we had the Aurea experience.   We have been on Princess, but it was a long time ago.

I really appreciate your opinions.    Thank You

I watched a guy stand at the Sports Bar for 15 minutes, totally ignored,  until he walked away.   We enjoyed our cruise on Seaside, and are booked in the Yacht club next year, but I can totally get what the OP is talking about.  The bar service could just be ridiculously bad. 

We had the Key on Adventure of the Seas in January.   We had an hour  each day on the flowrider.

  We arrived at the terminal alittle after 11:00, and there was no one there waiting.  Everyone had boarded already so although we were able to go to the suite check in line, it wasn't needed.

The lunch on embarkation was very nice.   Starting off vacation with the chaos of the buffet is not my favorite.

No reservations for shows, so they had saved a section of the theater and  studio B.   The ice show was pretty crowded, so that worked well.   But the shows were not crowded, so the key wasn’t much of a benefit.

I had originally booked a group lesson for my 2 boys on the flowrider.   It was $70 each for a group lesson.   It was a Christmas present to them, so after I purchased the Key, I still kept the lesson.   It turned out the didn’t have enough people signed up so it got cancelled, but the staff told us we were getting pretty much the same attention with the Key sessions. 

    The sessions were 1 hour every day.    It was my family of 4 and 2 other people most days.  One day, we couldn’t make it so they had it all to themselves for 1 hour.   The 2^nd to last day,  probably 10 key people showed up to try it.

 In my opinion, if you want flowrider time, it is worth it.   Otherwise it would have been harder for me  to justify.   

We had the Key on Adventure of the Seas.   In my opinion, if you want flowrider time, it is worth it.   Otherwise it would have been harder to justify.

  We arrived at the terminal alittle after 11:00, and there was no one there waiting.  Everyone had boarded already so although we were able to go to the suite check in line, it wouldn’t have mattered.

The lunch on embarkation was very nice.   Starting off vacation with the chaos of the buffet is not my favorite.

No reservations for shows, so they had saved a section of the theater and  studio B.   The ice show was pretty crowded, so that worked well.   But the shows were not crowded, so the key wasn’t much of a benefit.

I had originally booked a group lesson for my 2 boys on the flowrider.   It was $70 each for a group lesson.   It was a Christmas present to them, so after I purchased the Key, I still kept the lesson.   It turned out the didn’t have enough people signed up so it got cancelled, but the staff told us we were getting pretty much the same attention with the Key sessions. 

    The sessions were 1 hour every day.    It was my family of 4 and 2 other people most days.  One day, we couldn’t make it so they had it all to themselves for 1 hour.   The 2^nd to last day,  probably 10 key people showed up to try it.

So, to me, it was worth $70 per person per day for flowrider time.    The Advanced session were often right after our time, and I think that group saw the value, so I would hazard a guess that more flowrider  aficionados are going to opt for the Key, and the lines may be a bit longer, but I am just guessing.

Also,  the service on the ship was great to begin with, but when they saw you had the Key they did seem extra nice.  

I am not sure if this is different, but local article says San Cristobal and Del Morro will be closed after 6pm January 7th.

https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/nota/elmorroyelcastillosancristobalcerraranoperacionesmananaporlatarde-2469374

Yes, there are many tables for 2. You can also ask to be seated in a certain waiters section if you find one you like and I think you get better service as the get to know you. The anytime dining is in its own section of one of the main dining rooms.

My boys are 8 and 10. I am going to cut and paste this from my review:

Our boys went tried the kids club in the evenings. Please refer to post #68 in this thread, https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2570575&highlight=kids+club+activities+scan&page=4 to see the daily activities, ours didn't make it.

They were on the water slides or doing other things during the day. The kids club was a lot less refined then NCL getaway. They had short activities that didn’t appeal to the kids often times. Usually we would drop them off for an hour and pick them up to go see the show. For example, one night we picked up the boys a few minutes late and they were in the garage club doing a disco. My boys really didn’t like dancing.

On “spy night “ on Ncl it is listed from 7-10:30. It was a whole evening leading up to capturing the bad guy. My kids loved it.

On MSC, they had “super hero night” that sounds good, right? The times were a bit different then the one posted on the above link. So, we dropped them off, went to the seaside bar where the parade would be, and waited. The showed up 20 minutes later with a cape. They stood there in line waiting for 15 minutes, then did a dance for 3 minutes and went back.

Another example: we dropped them off for an hour on scary night, when we picked them up they said the didn't have scary night, they just watched a movie.

We also tried the “fun time dinner” early on. My boys hated it, since the counselors told them what they could have off the buffet, chicken nuggets that night, but they couldn’t go up and get what they wanted. I get why they had to do it this way with a group of kids, but my kids did not like it.

They have time to use the Nintendo switch, which again sounds good, but according to my sons “they only have 3 controllers, and no one shares”, so, yeah.

I don't want to make it seem like it was bad, but give you an idea what to expect. It felt more like a babysitting service, and may be better for younger kids. Our boys did enjoy the time they spent there, well except disco, but it was much less time then we had expected.

Getting out of here in February is just the best!!!

You are really going to enjoy your cruise.

It can be a bit breezy in the evening, so usually I have a windbeaker and my wife has a shawl. If you are bringing a sport coat you can always just wear that if you are cool at night.

One of my favorite things on Seaside was the silent disco.

Try the dining room for breakfast and lunch, not just the buffet. Our 1st couple cruises we just ate at the buffet for breakfast,

You probably read this already, but one of the chanels on the tv is an external camera, so if you are in an interior room you can turn that on. kinda like having a window.

I always bring earplugs just in case. There always seems to be people in the hallway up latter then you..

If you get one of those chocolate covered gelato bars, just get one to share. It always seemed to melt into a chocolate mess before we could finish it.

Take negative comments on Cruise critic with a giant grain of salt.

Start a saving for your next cruise now, 'cause there will be a next one.

I am booked in January. I have excursions and spa treatments, but nothing else.

We were on the Getaway last March and the Seaside in January. My boys are younger, 8 and 10, so the kids club experience won't be comparable. We were in an Aurea balcony, not yacht club.

Yacht club on Seaside vs NCL balcony? Without hesitation I would say Seaside.

Aurea Balcony vs NCL balcony would be a tough call, though.

We noticed A couple of big differences:

Seaside is really set up for traditional dining. The buffet is very small for dinner.

The Seaside seemed less congested to us.

February isn't a big month for school breaks in the US, so either way there will be fewer teenagers on board. But, just from my observation I would guess there would be more teenagers on NCL.

I would say 1/2 of the passengers were European.

People dressed for dinner.

The room we had on Seaside was smaller then the Getaway. We had a large balcony in the front of the ship on Getaway and an Aurea balcony in the front of the ship on Seaside, so very similar. The storage, space and balcony were bigger on Getaway, and you looked directly down to the ocean. On Seaside you looked down into the spa.

What about Itineraries? Are they the same?

I have to tell you I was looking at the exact same 2 cruises for next January, the San Juan, Nassau, St. Martin itinerary.

If the Bliss had stopped at there private island instead of Nassau, I would have done that. If Seaside docked in San Juan earlier, I would have booked that.

So what did I book for 2019? You can check out my signature for the answer. ( I know, probably doesn't help)

Try using chrome.

I thought of that too, Chrome and Explorer, Tried at home and work....

I often wonder how much business they lose when someone goes to the website to browse and just gets frustrated.

Many people dislike calling in and would rather check prices and book online, hard to believe in 2018 that you can’t do that effortlessly with MSC.

They lost my booking. Not because I was upset, but when I couldn't get it to work I started looking at other options, and one thing led to another and I booked another cruise.

When I try to book on the MSC Website, it shows every cabin unavailable. I have tried different ships, different dates, different experiences, etc but it is the same.

I can get to stateroom selection and it selects a stateroom, but if I try to change staterooms, all of them are grayed out.

If I go to a third party travel site, I can book the rooms. This has been going on since last week.

Is anyone else having this problem, or is it just me?

Thank You.

I was on the Seaside 1/20 and the pizza wasn't as good as I had expected.

But, they had focaccia next to it that was good, especially dipped in some salty soup.

I am hesitant to give my opinion because I know if I do it is going to sound more harsh then I intend too. My boys enjoyed the time they spent there, but it was much less time then we had expected.

We were on the NCl Getaway last march and the kids cub was one of the highlights, both for my kids and for my wife and I as it alowed us some free time in the evenings.

Compared to NCL, the kids club is not as well developed. It is more a series of activities then an engaging themed evening. It seemed to me that it would be better for younger children.

look at the activities post #68 here https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2570575&page=4

to get an idea.

It was slightly different schedule, but pretty similar.

I could go on about this, but maybe I should just leave it by saying it was o.k., but it wasn't a highlight of our trip.

Our boys are 8 and 10. There was no communication system. When we dropped them off the staff never asked where we would be. This is on the 1/20 sailing.

How old are our children? It may be different for the younger group

Aa a little side note related to comunication: we had whatsap to chat through the ship' s wifi. The 2nd evening I dropped them off at the kids club and I asked my boy to text me when they were done with an activity and we would pick them up to see the show, I had this conversation right in front of the staff that was at the front desk and there is no doubt she heard what i was saying. When my son tried to text me, he said they said he couldn't text and to put the phone away. I get that, but why she just didn't tell me thay it wasn't allowed in the 1st place, I don't know.

It was not working January 20-27.

The wrist band tracking was not working. The lady at the kids club said "next week", but I don't really believe she knew when.

We just got back. We had Whatsapp on 2 phones and it worked pretty well.

We had to reconnect to the internet quite often, but once you realize that you had to do this, it worked.

I don't feel service is subjective. Maybe inconsistent....

Regarding the Aurea balcony cabins on deck 9, these are the larger balcony cabins in the front of the ship:

can anyone tell me if they have sun loungers or do they just have regular chairs on the balcony?

Thanks

Thanks for the info.

Now, i am an old-school, flip phone kinda guy so I do not understand alot of mobile tech, so maybe someone could help me out .

We have this included free:

Surfer Cruise Plus

Access to social networks, chat apps emails and web (No Audio and Video) browsing up to 800 MBs + an esclusive 20% more data (total amount 960 MBs)

What I am thinking, is I can get a "chat app"(although I don't know what that is, exactly) on our phones and we would be able to text each other over the ship's WiFi.

What do you think?

I would like to be able to keep in touch with my kids while on board.

Does the "MSC for me" app allow calling or texting within the ship, either from the room or another mobile phone?

Also, can you track the location of your kids with the wristband? I believe that was one of the features mentioned on their website.

Thank you

Payroll is always a big expense.

In my field, the 1st thing cut is payroll.

Just about everything I read about the Seaside makes me think that it is understaffed. To me, it seems that this is the root of many of the comments so far.

Is that because they are in the process of training and hiring or is it their business model for the American market?